New Year's Hygge Soup (chunky spiced red lentil and root veg)

We live in Denmark now. Since last Sunday. Crikey: nearly a week. After a rush of moving and flying and packing and cases and goodbyes and Christmas and birthday and everything, there we were. It snowed. Amy arrived from Berlin for New Year's Eve - hurrah. We explored a bit. Walking: the Mermaid and the busbies in Amalienborg. 360 degrees of Round Tower. Half-electric bikes to look at the Carlsberg elephant gate. Looks like we can swim and sauna at the harbour baths, but we didn't know in time to achieve it on New Year's Day. Sooo many fireworks.

Discovering supermarkets. Nearest is Rema 1000 (seems to be mid-range), also Aldi; Irma (seems to be more fancy / økologisk). After some foggy outdoor explorations on New Year's Day it felt like enough activity and we went home to create some hygge. With a bag full of red lentils and root vegetables. Soup.

(this served 3 good appetites, with bread, for dinner)

~2 tbsp olive oil (olivenolie)
3 cloves garlic (hvidløg), peeled and chopped
2 medium leeks (porre), sliced
4 medium persillerod (aka petersilienwurzel aka parsley root aka my new favourite thing - seems quite easy to get here; alternatively use parsnips, pastinak), peeled and diced fairly small
6 medium carrots (gulerod), peeled and diced fairly small
1/4 celeriac (knoldselleri), peeled and diced fairly small
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin (kommen)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (kanel)
1/4 tsp turmeric (gurkemeje)
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground thyme (timien)
1 cup red lentils (røde linser)
1 veg stock cube dissolved in boiling water
more boiling water
6 baby pattypan squash, chopped
6 mushrooms (champignon), chopped
splashes of balsamic vinegar (eddike)
splashes of soy sauce (sojasovs)
salt+pepper (salt og peber)

Heat oil in a large lidded saucepan. Add garlic and leeks, cover and cook for a few minutes. Add the chopped root vegetables, cover and cook for a few minutes more until everything is slightly tender and just starting to soften. Add the spices and thyme and stir for a few minutes until you can smell them. Add the lentils and stir, then add the stock and enough water to achieve a consistency a bit runnier than you'd like to end up with (the lentils will absorb some). Turn down low, and simmer for 10-15 min, until the lentils and vegetables are almost tender. Add the squash and mushrooms and cook another 5-10 min, until everything is done. Taste, and add vinegar, soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Eat warm with bread (brød). Would be good (perhaps better) reheated the next day, if there is any left.


This came out just as I wanted, and really hit the spot. A big pan of it went down real well.

Toasting giant couscous / revisiting reliable recipes

I have been making a lot of things over again: as vegetable friends I haven't seen since last year turn up in the CSA I have been tending to return to things I made before and liked. Improvements and refinements instead of novelties. Also lots of salad. Familiarity feels good.

Beetroot (OK these haven't been absent since last year, but we have been getting a lot of them recently):
This is my favourite way of cooking beets. Becomes an instant salad if you peel+mash the roasted garlic, mix it through with some extra balsamic, let cool and keep in the fridge.

Carrot greens: I have never really prepped them any way other than this paste, because it's so so good.

Basil: pistachio pesto - need I say more?

Cucumbers+tomatoes: overnight couscous (and quicker variant)

Aubergines: caponata - excellent, especially with toasted couscous (see below); baba; miso aubergine

Courgettes, fennel, aubergines, peppers: roasted veg with harissa dressing and couscous / wheatberries (or, lately, orzo)

Peppers: muhammara

Yes, and, that giant couscous I mentioned - I have always found it a bit bland, and obviously it lacks the ready-in-ten-minutes-with-no-pans-involved charm of normal couscous. So this time I tried toasting it with a little olive oil in the pan for a few minutes, until lightly browned, before adding the water and cooking as usual (finishing with salt, pepper, olive oil and white wine). Sooooo much tastier! Definitely recommended if you have a few extra minutes!

Courgette and banana muffins / cake

This recipe demanded making immediately for several reasons: (1) yesterday was the first day in about two weeks cool enough to even countenance turning on the oven; (2) I had a hugely overripe banana looking quizzically at me; (3) I also had masses of courgettes (about eight: see double-CSA week). Oh and, I do really enjoy courgette cake.

(made 12 smallish muffins)

1 large very ripe banana
1/4 cup apple puree
1/4 cup veg oil
3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
1 cup grated courgette (about 1/3 of a quite big one)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup raisins

Heat oven to 350F. Prepare muffin or bread tin. In a large bowl, mash the banana with a fork. Add the apple puree, oil, sugar, and vanilla and mix more with the fork. Mix in the grated courgette. Add 1 cup flour, cinnamon, allspice, bicarb and salt, and mix until just combined. Toss walnuts, raisins and remaining 1/2 cup flour together, then add to the wet batter and mix until just combined. Put into the prepared bread or muffin tin and bake for ~25 min (muffins) or 50-55 min (loaf cake). Ready when golden and a skewer comes out clean (cook 10-15 min longer at 325F if it needs more time). Let cool in the tin for 10 min, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling.


These were delicious - so many good things in there! And they rose really nicely and coloured up beautifully. I had a couple of cups of apple puree frozen (that I defrosted by sitting the tub in warm water until I could scrape off 1/4 cup's worth), so this was a pretty fortuitous combination of stuff I just happened to have around the kitchen.

Spring freekeh

It doesn't feel much like Spring today, although it should be nearly Summer already - this is Memorial Day weekend, it'll be June in a week. The air is thick with drizzle, and it's chilly although still very humid. Yum. Anyway, it's supposed to clear up by tomorrow lunchtime. And a little bit of mizzle wasn't going to stop me biking a crate full of tomato plants around town this morning, or making food that tastes of Spring.

I have really warmed to freekeh. It's like a more green-coloured version of bulghur wheat, and it tastes green: a little like the grass I used to chew on as a kid. So, I have decided it is much more interesting than bulghur. I have also decided it goes brilliantly with other green-looking and green-tasting things: peas, broad beans, courgette, pumpkin seeds, mint, chives... I thought my chives were dead after the winter but they resurrected, and are looking wonderfully green and healthy. The mint isn't doing too badly either.

I'm not sure what this is: sort of a salad, sort of a pilaf. Makes enough for 2-4, depending how hungry you are and how much else you've got going on.

1 cup freekeh (or bulghur, or wheatberries)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 small courgette, thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peas
1/2 cup fresh or frozen broad beans
1-2 tbsp chopped mint
1-2 tbsp chopped chives
1-2 tbsp pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 tbsp dandelion leek miso
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (or lemon juice)
salt+pepper (maybe)

Put the freekeh in a small pan with ~ 2 cups of water and 1 tbsp olive oil. Boil until freekeh is tender and the liquid has almost all evaporated. Add the sliced courgette, peas and broad beans (may need to add these a little earlier if they are big) and cook for a few minutes more, just until everything is tender and the liquid is gone.

In the bottom of a serving bowl, mix the miso, EVOO and white balsamic vinegar. Add the freekeh-veg mixture and mix well together. Set aside and allow to cool until at least warm, ideally cool (so that the herbs stay bright green when you add them). Add the chives, mint and pumpkin seeds and mix it up. Taste to check if it needs any salt and pepper.

Okara

Okara is the other solids left behind when soymilk (and/or tofu) is made from soybeans. In Japanese grocery stores that make their own tofu, apparently it is traditional to give away balls of okara. We visited an awesome Japanese grocery store in Medford yesterday (recommended by a Japanese friend): Ebisuya. They make their own tofu, and there was one, unlabelled, cling-wrapped ball of white stuff in the fridge above the tray of fresh tofu. I was pretty sure it would be okara. More so when I checked the receipt and saw they didn't charge us for it. I was excited to have tracked it down!

I wasn't sure what to do with the okara, having gotten my hands on it. I tasted it, and it is subtle, similar in taste to tofu but totally different in texture: firm but kinda dry, quite fibrous - some heft to it. I decided to fry it up with some sesame and veggies, much like my current favourite tempeh prep or a tofu scramble.

1 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 in piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
1/2 an onion, peeled and sliced
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds
4-5 mushrooms,cleaned and sliced
1 small courgette, sliced
1 ball of okara
~2 tbsp mirin
~2 tbsp chickpea tamari

Heat the oils and add the onion, garlic and ginger. Cook for a few minutes. Add the sesame seeds and cook a minute or so more until just starting to brown. Add the mushrooms and courgette and stir-fry for a few minutes more, until they soften. Add the okara and stir-fry for a few more minutes. Finally add the mirin and tamari (add more if you prefer) and mix it all up. Eat as it is, or with a little brown rice.


It's good. Interesting. All about the texture; I kind of like it.

Cocoa courgette muffins

The humidity relented and gave us beautiful weather at the weekend.  Time slipped away oh-so-fast amid biking and swimming and gardening adventures (two different, awesome, bike-able swimming ponds! the first two tomatoes on my plants ripening!), and on Sunday night I decided to do some quick baking, before the hot ramps up again as no doubt it will.  Using another one of my rooftop courgettes (harvested 10 1/2 so far!).

These muffins are another classic from the days of Liz and my allotment excesses; the recipe was originally from someone's muffin making book.  I can't put my finger on why I like these so much, but I do: moist and spiced and chocolatey and ever-so-slightly green in flavour, with bursts of sweetness from the raisins - every ingredient is doing its bit to make them work. 

10 oz  (280 g) plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1 tbsp ground linseed plus 2 1/2 tbsp boiling water
5 oz (140g) brown sugar
12 oz (340g) courgette, grated
120 ml (4 fl oz) veg oil
60 ml (2 fl oz) fake milk mixed with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp vanilla essence
3 oz (85g) raisins (optional, but good)

Heat oven to 400F.  Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, cinnamon and cocoa in a large bowl with a fork.  In a separate, medium-sized bowl mix the linseed and boiling water and leave for a minute to thicken.  Then add the sugar, grated courgette, oil, milk (+vinegar) and vanilla and mix together.  Add the wet mix to the dry mix and mix until just combined, adding the raisins in the last few strokes.  Dollop the mixture into a prepared muffin tin (this was enough for 12 generous ones in my tin), then bake for ~25 min.  Leave to cool for a few minutes then lift the muffins out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.


The recipe I used to use had an egg in it, but I subbed a flax egg and added a tsp of vinegar and these came out great - perfectly risen and indistinguishable from the original, to my tastebuds.

Breakfast scramble

We realised this morning that we hadn't had an out of the ordinary weekend breakfast any time recently.  So I volunteered to make us a tofu scramble.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 small courgette, sliced
4 mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 spring onions, chopped
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tbsp fresh basil, chopped
5 courgette flowers (male), bases and stamens removed, petals chopped 
1 package extra firm tofu, drained and patted dry
1/4 tsp turmeric
1-2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp soy sauce
salt+pepper

Heat olive oil in a frying pan, then add the chopped onion and saute.  Add the garlic and saute a few minutes.  Then add the courgette and give it a few more minutes.  Next add mushrooms, spring onions, chilli, red pepper flakes and thyme and cook a few more minutes.  Then add the parsley, basil and courgette flowers and cook a little longer.  Crumble in the tofu and add turmeric, cook a few more minutes to heat through.  Finally, add balsamic vinegar, soy sauce and salt+pepper to taste.


This one was pretty good - S said it was the best tofu scramble he'd ever had (not that he's had all that many...).

Fried courgette flowers with sunflower seeds

I have not had the chance to watch a veg garden as closely as this since I was a child.  One of the things I've noticed is that the courgette plants produce a lot more male flowers than female ones - seems like for every female flower there is a preceding wave of male flowers, and an equal number concurrently as well.  So there's an excess of male flowers that can be taken for cooking without a qualm.

6 courgette flowers
1 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt+pepper

Clean and dry the courgette flowers gently, and trim the stems.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the courgette flowers, sunflower seeds and seasoning.  Fry on a medium heat for ~5 minutes, until the flowers are wilted and the sunflower seeds are light golden.


The flowers went a little floppy (perhaps I didn't dry them out well enough?) so weren't that great of a texture, but the crunchy sunflower seeds cut through that to some extent.  Good mixed into pasta - a pleasant, flowery-sweet but courgettey-green taste.  Other ideas are to put the flowers on pizza or in some kind of omelette type thing.

Zucchini bread

I made my first zucchini bread with my friend Jane when I was a teenager - she'd spent a year or two living in the USA as her Dad did a sabbatical there or something, and came back with lots of crazy Americanisms... like zucchini bread.  My next forays into zucchini bread probably came when Liz and I were harvesting epic quantities of courgettes in the first year of our allotment - we tried many many recipes - I remember marrow and mint soup being quite successful, as were cocoa and courgette muffins...  Hmmm, perhaps I'll do some of those soon too...

My current courgette harvest is far from being such a glut, but I've got four good ones so far and I'm pretty happy about it.  I guess I was daydreaming about exciting things to do with courgettes, and fancied a bit of zucchini/courgette bread.

I used this recipe, which apparently originally came from a book called 'The Joy of Vegan Baking'.

3 tbsp ground linseed
1/2 cup water
1 cup veg oil
1 tbsp white vinegar
2 cups sugar
2 cups courgette, grated
2 tsp vanilla essence
3 cups flour (mixture of white and wholemeal)
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp bicarb
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 cup raisins

Heat oven to 325F (170C).  Grease two 8x4x2 inch loaf pans.  Combine ground linseed and water, mix with a fork and leave for a few minutes.  Add oil, vinegar and sugar and mix.  Add grated courgette and vanilla and mix.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients together with a fork.  Mix in walnuts and raisins.  Stir the dry mixture into the wet mixture until just combined - do not over mix.  Divide the batter between the loaf pans and bake for 60 to 70 minutes.


This was pretty much exactly what I wanted.  Might consider adding lemon zest and/or desiccated coconut / swapping out raisins and walnuts for other dried fruit / nuts / seeds.  It doesn't look like much but it tastes the business.  Not quite settled on the perfect recipe yet though.

Home-grown courgette and mint salad for an insanely hot day

I harvested the first two courgettes from my secret garden yesterday morning.  They are quite fat, perhaps they are some kind of summer squash, not really courgettes at all?  They grew from seed I saved from a marrow we picked up from a free stuff stand outside Andy's neighbour's house in Boothbay Harbor, Maine.

Yesterday then proceeded to become insanely hot.  It got to 35C in the afternoon, and quite humid.  I don't know what to do with myself on those kind of days - I'm so British, I just wilt at hot temperatures.  Staying at work where the aircon is cool, eating cold food on the balcony, or lying down and reading are all I seem to be able to manage.

So I wanted to make something exciting and tasty with the courgettes without cooking them.  I also wanted to combine them with mint, because a) I think it should be a great, fresh/refreshing combination, and b) I found some mint growing in the courtyard outside our apartment.  This is the local-est food we have eaten in ages!

This salad was the culmination of  all the thoughts above.

1 medium courgette
1-2 tbsp fresh mint, finely shredded
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
zest and juice of 1/2 a lime
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
salt and pepper

Cut the courgette lengthwise into pieces comfortable to hold in your hand (about 2 in diameter) - mine went into quarters.  Then use a peeler to cut lengthwise into long, super thin slices (if I had a mandoline, I would have used that).  Put the courgette into a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, toss thoroughly, check for seasoning and eat.


I'd probably have used lemon if I'd had any, but the lime worked just as well - all the tastes were really in sync with each other and exactly right for the weather.

BBQ food: watermelon salad, marinated tofu, stuffed courgettes

It was at last time to get our little barbeque dirty for the first time this season - A+R came round for a Sunday lunch grill.

I made a big, rocket-based salad, and we grilled some fruits and veggies pretty plainly: corn on the cob, long-sliced courgettes and plantains, fingerling potatoes (some with shredded, freshly-picked sage) in foil packets in the coals (these were excellent), pineapple, chocolate-stuffed bananas in foil in the coals...

I also, partly inspired by grilling at A's on Friday, decided to marinate some tofu and see how that went - I haven't tried barbequeing tofu before, envisaged it falling apart and through the holes into the fire, but it turned out really successful.  I just lobbed a whole load of things I thought would taste good together into the marinade - I feel like all sorts of variations / a simpler version would work well too.

The watermelon salad and stuffed courgettes are classics from my vegetarian days - S came back from Trado's with a big pot of good feta (a key ingredient for both). The stuffed courgettes are one of his specialities, and the watermelon salad is a favourite of his too (he has never really gone vegan, although he's been vegetarian for nearly 30 years).


Marinated Tofu

1 packet extra-firm tofu

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp white vermouth
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp honey
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp mixed chili and red pepper flakes
salt and pepper

Slice the tofu into pieces about 1 cm thick and press as dry as you can manage.  Make sure to use firm tofu as this will help negate any potential breaking up / falling in problems.  Arrange in a single layer in the smallest high-sided dish you can fit them in.  I also put in some mushrooms, stalk removed and gill side up.  Mix up the marinade in a small bowl, pour it evenly over all the tofu pieces and mushrooms, cover and leave for 1-2 hours minimum (will keep like this in the fridge for a day or two).

When ready to grill, just place on the hot bbq grill.  The grill will make pretty charred lines so if you want these to look good think about when and how you move the tofu pieces around.  Done when lightly browned / slightly charred.


Watermelon Salad

1/4 small watermelon
3/4 slab of feta (or ~6 finely chopped, salty black olives as a vegan substitute)
2 sprigs of basil
2 spring onions
olive oil
salt and pepper

Peel the watermelon and slice it thinly, then into bite-sized pieces.  Arrange in a bowl and crumble the feta over the top.  Slice the spring onions very finely and add to the bowl, followed by the torn basil leaves.  Dress with extra virgin olive oil and some salt and pepper.  This made enough for 4 people to have a bowlful each.


Stuffed Courgettes

2 medium sized courgettes
1 1/2 tbsp pine nuts (or sunflower seeds)
3/4 slab feta (or marinated tofu - I'd simplify the marinade above a little but use a similar method)
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1-2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (optional)
olive oil
salt+pepper

Balance each courgette on a flat surface to see where it sits without rolling around.  The cut a window / lid along the length of the top (as you would when making a pumpkin lantern) and hollow out the insides.  Don't worry about getting every last bit out, just make sure there is a good cavity to fill and the sides and lid are still quite robust.

Mix up the remaining ingredients in a bowl along with about half the chopped-up courgette innards.  Then stuff the mixture into the cavity, making sure it is full to bursting before putting the lid back on.  Prepare a piece of tinfoil for each courgette, big enough to wrap it up securely.  Season the inside of the tinfoil with salt and pepper and olive oil, then place each prepared courgette in the middle of a piece of tinfoil and wrap up.

Cook directly in the hot coals - they are done when they give a little when poked (should take about 15 min).

Savoury courgette and chickpea muffins

I was thinking about making savoury muffins.  Most of the recipes I've seen include cheese in some way, I didn't feel like putting cheese in, but didn't think that should mean I can't make savoury muffins.  Thought chickpea, chilli, courgette and parsley sounded like a good combination, and we bought an epic quantity of spring onions (for $1) from the Haymarket yesterday so I thought I'd make the first move to try and lessen the mountain...

Also, note, I decided to use an egg in these.  I have had to buy eggs for a protocol I'm using at work a few times recently so needed to use them up.  I am also excited because I am planning to do a deal with my friend Sage who keeps chickens - my jam in exchange for his eggs.  So maybe there will be a few more eggs in the near future.  To make these without the egg, I think I would just add some ground linseed mixture, and/or increase the tahini.

150 g plain flour
100 g wholemeal flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tbsp millet
1 1/2 tbsp sunflower seeds
1 tsp nigella seeds
1-2 tsp dried chilli flakes
2 tsp nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3/4 cup cooked chickpeas
1 small courgette, chopped into matchsticks
4 spring onions, chopped
2-3 tbsp parsley, chopped

50 ml olive oil
20 ml veg oil
20 ml tahini
240 ml fake milk
1 egg

Heat oven to 400F.  Mix the dry ingredients (first text block) in a bowl with a fork.  Add the chickpeas and veggies (second text block) and mix again.  In a separate bowl, mix the wet ingredients (third text block).  Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined.  Line a muffin tin with paper and spoon the mixture into the cups (made 12).  Bake for ~30 min until lightly golden on top.  Remove from tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.


These are not bad.  They are good as a complement to eat with something else (I can imagine them being good sandwiched with tomato and chilli jam and dry tofu).  I think adding some pitted, chopped, salty black olives to the mix might just finish them off nicely - there's a voice in my head saying if a muffin isn't sweet it needs to be salty...

Ratatouille

I was dithering over the best way to cook a ratatouille, and decided it might be a good time to go with one of the Guardian's 'Perfect...' recipes.  This one.  Seemed to have a reasonable combination of ingredients and cooking methods.

1 huge red pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, cut into small dice
4 cloves garlic, minced – 1 kept separate
4 ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and cut into small dice, plus juices
3 sprigs of thyme, plus 1 tsp thyme leaves
Pinch of saffron
1 tsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
3 courgettes (a mix of yellow and green is good if possible), thinly sliced
1 aubergine, thinly sliced
4 plum tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to serve

Heat the oven to 230C / 450F.  Cut the pepper in half, removing the seeds and pith, and place cut side down on a lightly oiled baking tray.  Roast for 20 minutes until the skin has blistered, then remove and leave to cool, turning the oven down to 140C / 280F.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over a low heat, add the onion and cook until very soft, but not browned (about 8 minutes), adding 3 cloves of minced garlic 5 minutes in. Stir in the tomatoes and juices, and the sprigs of thyme, and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Peel the pepper, cut into small dice and add to the pan to soften along with the saffron. Remove the thyme, season to taste, and stir in the vinegar.

Spread the sauce on the bottom of an oven dish, then arrange the sliced vegetables on top. Mix the remaining clove of garlic with the extra virgin olive oil and thyme leaves, season and sprinkle over the top. Cover tightly with foil, and put in the oven for 2 hours until the vegetables are tender to the point of a knife.

Remove the foil, and cook for 30 minutes more – if the top starts to brown, cover loosely with the foil again. If there is any liquid left in the dish after cooking, decant it into a small pan, and reduce over a medium heat, then pour back in. At this point it can be kept for a couple of days.

Just before serving, re-heat if desired, then put the ratatouille under a hot grill until lightly browned


Was fine.  Nothing special and a bit faffy.  Still dithering over the best way to cook ratatouille.

Baking produce

I have this thing where if I have the oven on I need to try and use it for a bunch of stuff to justify heating it up in the first place.  Sometimes this works, and sometimes it leads to hours in the kitchen...

Last night it worked.  I wanted simple, summery food - veggies / fruits and herbs / spices.

Baked courgette with rosemary and lemon

2 courgettes (super fresh from the farmers market), sliced into thick (~1in) rounds
olive oil
~6 cloves garlic, peeled but not chopped
salt+pepper
rosemary
lemon juice

Heat oven to 375F.  Rub the base of an oven dish with olive oil, then lay out the courgettes, cut sides down/up.  Slip the garlic cloves into spaces between the courgettes.  Sprinkle with a little more olive oil, salt+pepper and roughly chopped rosemary (fresh would be better, but I only had dried).  Put in the oven for about 45min, turning the courgette pieces about halfway through.  Take out and squeeze a little lemon juice over the top then serve.



Baked tomatoes with onion and basil

1 small tub cherry plum tomatoes
~4 cloves garlic, roughly sliced
1 onion, roughly sliced
handful fresh basil leaves, washed and roughly torn
salt and pepper
olive oil
balsamic vinegar (optional)

Heat oven to 375F.  Put all the veggies and basil in an oven tray, add salt and pepper and olive oil to taste and shake to coat everything with olive oil.  Put in the oven for ~45min, shaking about halfway through to keep things cooking evenly.  Add a little balsamic vinegar when you take it out if you like - it complements the tastes pretty well.



Baked, spiced plum and blueberry compote

3 large black plums
handful blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 a star anise (optional)
sprinkling of sugar

Heat oven to 375F. Chop the plums into ~eighths and arrange in a baking tray.  Add the blueberries, a sprinkling of sugar and the cinnamon stick (and anise if using... a rosemary sprig also a good option).  Put in the oven for ~ 30min.  Careful to avoid eating the spice / herb bits.


Ate the veggies with some cous cous.  All tasty and simple, and pretty quick.  Wasn't that sure about the anise but S said he liked it.

Stuffed squash

These little round squashes were so cute I had to buy some...  I didn't really know what they were, but turns out they are a kind of spherical courgette.  They were so pretty I couldn't bring myself to cut them up and decided to bake them whole and stuff them instead.  I wanted to fill them with fresh, summery tastes - peas, mint - so decided to try preparing the filling separately so the peas etc didn't get overcooked during the oven baking process.

2 little round squashes ('8-ball' squash)
1 cup brown rice (I used brown sushi rice as that's what we had)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp mint, chopped
2 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 tbsp sunflower seeds, toasted
1 1/2 tbsp black olives, pitted and chopped
~30g frozen edamame (a good handful), defrosted
~30g frozen peas (a good handful), defrosted
salt and pepper
1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
olive oil

Put the rice in a small pan with 2 cups of water and boil for ~25 min until tender.

Cut little lids in the squashes  like you were making pumpkin lanterns.  Remove flesh from inside, leaving about 1cm thickness.  Put the lids back on, put the squashes on a baking tray and put in the oven at 400F for 20min.

Meanwhile, chop the innards.  Heat ~ 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and then add the onion and garlic.  Fry until softened (4-5 min).  Then add the courgette innards and fry over a moderate-high heat.  A lot of liquid will come out of the courgette, so keep frying pretty high until it is all evaporated and the stuff is golden and tasty.  Season to taste.

When the rice is ready, mix the rice and onion and courgette mixture in a large bowl.  Make sure it is cool enough not to discolour the herbs, but still warm.  Add the olives, defrosted peas and edamame, toasted sunflower seeds and herbs and mix well together.  Add olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste.

When the little squashes are tender to the point of a knife, remove them from the oven.  Take off the lid again, pour out any excess liquid, and fill them up with the rice mixture, so it's bulging out of the top.  Balance the lids back on top so they look cute, and eat before they get cold.




They worked out pretty good - fresh and tasty.  Lots of the inside mix is left - perhaps we can stuff some peppers with it in the same way tomorrow, or it'll work just as a sort-of risotto.

Fried courgette flowers / edamame pesto

Fried courgette flowers

S stopped by the farmers market on Thurs evening and bought some courgette flowers.  Seemed like the thing to do with them was batter and fry.  So I googled that.

8 fresh courgette flowers, wiped clean if need (but not wet)

50g plain flour
2 tbsp cornflour
~100ml ice cold water

veg oil for frying (plus a little olive oil for taste)

salt

Put the flours in a bowl over a bowl of iced water and mix together.  Add the iced water and mix to a pouring cream consistency (so that the stuff coats your finger).

Heat ~1cm oil in a small saucepan til it smokes.  Coat a courgette flower in batter and then put into hot oil.  Should go golden in a couple of minutes.  Flip if necessary.  Cook then all like this, cutting in half if large, and fishing out with a slotted spoon and moving to kitchen roll on a plate when done.  Sprinkle with sea salt and eat straight away.

They were very good.  The batter was not super crispy, especially the first ones - need to make sure it is not too thick and the oil is good and hot.


Edamame pesto

Saw this on ppk.  Went to Haymarket and bought a bunch of basil, thought a variant on pesto might be an idea.

2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup packed basil leaves
Handful (1/4 cup or so) fresh cilantro
14 oz package shelled edamame, thawed
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Blend all ingredients with a wand blender. Add a little more vegetable broth if it seems too stiff. Eat with spaghetti or bread or anything really.



It was good...  A cross between pesto and hummus.  Wonderfully green, and that didn't fade with keeping in the fridge like regular pesto.  S liked it because it didn't have so much oil in it.  I think it might be missing a bit of nuttiness - next experiment will be a mixture of basil, edamame, sunflower seeds and olive oil...

Sesame noodles / lemony courgette and chickpeas

I remembered about the Brookline farmers' market as I was riding home today.  I was just in time to catch the last few things on the last stall as it was packing up.  And they were exciting things - a bunch of chard (mostly white but some ruby), a handful of garlic flower buds (scapes? they were labelled as), and a hard-sold light-green squash which is apparently super sweet and was only 50c.  $2.50 for the lot - not bad I think.

Anyway, I'll get onto those over the weekend...


For today...

Sesame noodles

60g sesame seeds
2 bundles (200g) soba noodles
3-4 spring onions, thinly sliced
5 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice vinegar
2 tsp honey
2 tsp sesame oil

Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan.  Put the noodles in a pan of boiling, slightly salted water and cook til done (~5-6 min).  Put the noodles under cold water til cold.  Prep the spring onions.  Mix the remaining ingredients in serving bowl. Add the noodles and spring onions and toss.  Add sesame seeds and toss some more.  Chill for an hour before serving, ideally.


Lemony courgette and chickpeas

~250g courgette (1 large, in this case)
zest of half a lemon and juice of ~1 whole lemon
8 basil leaves
3-4 tbsp olive oil
salt
good handful of chickpeas (~100g when cooked)

Zest the lemon into a bowl and squeeze in the juice.  Finely shred the basil and add to the lemon.  Add the olive oil and mix with a fork.  Add the chickpeas and some salt to taste and mix up.  Cut the courgette into thin ribbons lengthwise using a peeler.  Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and fry the ribbons til golden brown and floppy, putting into the bowl with the other ingredients as they are ready.  Toss all together when done, and serve with/on toasted bread if you have some.


I also made the classic silken tofu salad.  Good times.

The lemony courgette was really nice and summery.  Was quite oily, which was not really necessary - could get the olive oil flavour better with less - might try grilling or baking the courgette slices in future to avoid the frying in future, since frying is a pain and adds oil.  Could also cut down the oil overall.

The sesame noodles I made once, years ago, made a mental note that they were good and then never bought any soba noodles.  We got some the other day on our mission to the Chinese supermarket in Quincy so it seemed like time to trot it out again.  I can confirm that it is good, and super simple too.